Spiritual Solutions

THE RESURRECTION

Easter Sunday. Read John 20:1-18.

Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Its inner meaning and spiritual significance is the awakening and raising to spiritual consciousness of the I AM in humankind, which has been dead in trespass and sin and buried in the tomb of materiality.

“I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” The resurrection is the raising up of the whole person – spirit, soul, and body – into the Christ consciousness of life and wholeness. This Jesus did. The tomb could not hold His redeemed perfected body temple. Resurrection is accomplished by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit.

Every time we rise to the realization of eternal, indwelling life, making union with the Father-Mind, the resurrection of Jesus takes place within us. All thoughts of limitation and inevitable obedience to material law are left in the tomb of materiality.

Jesus was born into the race thought so that He might reconstruct it in conformity with the divine law. He thus became our Way-Shower, our Saviour, our Helper.

Today the light of Truth is illumining my mind, and I rise up in the majesty of my divine sonship and proclaim myself to be the child of the Most High, free from all belief in sin, sickness, and death.

I affirm: “In unity with Christ I realize that I am resurrected into the life, light, and power of God.”

Questions:

1. What is the spiritual significance of Easter?

2. What is the resurrection?

3. How is resurrection accomplished?

4. Why was Jesus born into the race thought?

Christ within me is the resurrection and the life. Christ within me is the power that enables me to rise triumphant out of every trial.

About the Author of Keep a True Lent

Charles Fillmore was an innovative thinker, a pioneer in metaphysical thought at a time when most religious thought in America was entirely orthodox. He was a lifelong advocate of the open, inquiring mind, and he took pride in keeping abreast of the latest scientific and educational discoveries and theories. Many years ago he wrote, “What you think today may not be the measure for your thought tomorrow”; and it seems likely that were he to compile this book today, he might use different metaphors, different scientific references, and so on.

Truth is changeless. Those who knew Charles Fillmore best believe that he would like to be able to rephrase some of his observations for today’s readers, thus giving them the added effectiveness of contemporary thought. But the ideas themselves–the core of Charles Fillmore’s writings–are as timeless now (and will be tomorrow) as when they were first published.

Charles Fillmore was born on an Indian reservation just outside the town of St. Cloud, Minnesota, on August 22, 1854. He made his transition on July 5, 1948, at Unity Village, Missouri, at the age of 93. To get a sense of history, when Charles was eleven, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated; when Charles died, Harry Truman was President.

With his wife Myrtle, Charles Fillmore founded the Unity movement and Silent Unity, the international prayer ministry that publishes Daily Word. Charles and Myrtle built the worldwide organization that continues their work today, Unity School of Christianity. Through Unity School’s ministries of prayer, education, and publishing, millions of people around the world are finding the teachings of Truth discovered and practiced by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore.

Charles Fillmore was a spiritual pioneer whose impact has yet to be assessed. No lesser leaders than Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Dr. Emmet Fox were profoundly influenced by him. Dr. Peale borrowed his catchphrase of positive thinking from Charles Fillmore. Emmet Fox was so affected by Fillmore’s ideas that he changed his profession. From an engineer, he became the well-known writer and speaker.

Charles Fillmore – author, teacher, metaphysician, practical mystic, husband, father, spiritual leader, visionary – has left a legacy that continues to impact the lives of millions of people. By his fruits, he is continuously known.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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RESTING IN GOD

40th Day, Saturday. Read Isaiah 11:1-10; 12:1-6.

After Jesus’ crucifixion He was laid to rest in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus represents the expression of the I AM identity. Arimathea represents an aggregation of thoughts of lofty character, a high state of consciousness in us. Joseph represents a state of consciousness in which we improve in character along all lines. We not only grow into a broader understanding but also we increase in vitality and substance. We are resting in God, and at the same time gathering strength for the power of greater demonstrations to follow.

A degree of cleansing, a wiping out of sense consciousness has been accomplished. By mentally reviewing our experiences, we recognize that nothing is really destroyed, but rather transmuted. Through faith we take stock of the progress we have made and find that we are getting a consciousness of radiant substance and of a higher life. Nothing is lost. When sense consciousness is raised to a higher plane all that belongs to it is saved with it.

In reality the invisible cannot be seen, touched, or comprehended by the outer senses, yet in this realm a great and mighty work is being accomplished.

Today I realize that the leaven that “leaveneth the whole lump” is the Truth. The word of Truth within me is not idle, but quietly spreading from point to point. This process will continue until my whole consciousness is vitalized by the Holy Spirit.

I affirm: “I rest in the consciousness of eternal life and strength, and I am made perfect.”

Questions:

1. What does Arimathea represent?

2. What does Joseph represent?

3. What happens when sense consciousness is raised to a higher plane?

4. What is the leaven that “leaveneth the whole lump”?

Father-God, I rest in the consciousness of Your presence within me and about me. I rest in the consciousness of Your life and perfection within me.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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CRUCIFIXION

39th Day, Good Friday. Read John 19:1-42.

Jesus’ crucifixion on Calvary was a final step in a work that had been going on in Him for thirty-three years, and when He arose He was entirely free from the carnal mind with all its limitations. He had overcome all the carnal tendencies which He had taken on that He might free the race from its bondage.

The word crucifixion means the crossing out in consciousness of certain errors that have become fixed states of mind; it is the enactment by a master of the final extinction of carnal mind, the giving up of the whole personality in order that the Christ Mind may be expressed in all its fullness. This is represented by the crucifixion of Jesus.

Calvary means “the place of a skull.” The carnal mind has appropriated the brain and its skull and it is here that the final battle is fought. Every time we give up error there is a crucifixion.

The three days Jesus was in the tomb represent the three steps in overcoming error. First, nonresistance; second, the taking on of divine activity, or receiving the will of God; third, the assimilation and fulfillment of the divine will.

I deny the self that I may unite with the selfless. I give up the mortal that I may attain the immortal. I dissolve the thought of the physical body that I may realize the spiritual body. This is a mental process with a physical effect.

I affirm: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”

Questions:

1. What was the final step of Jesus’ work?

2. What does the word “crucifixion” mean?

3. What does “calvary” mean?

4. What do the three days Jesus was in the tomb represent?

God’s spirit in me is invincible and indestructible. Thank You, Father, for Your spirit in me that gives me victory over death itself.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

—————————————————–             

 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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HOLY COMMUNION

37th Day, Wednesday. Read Luke 22:1-23.

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it; and he gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the covenant.”

The first step in drinking of the blood and eating of the body of Jesus is to resolve this whole Scripture back into the primal ideas. The only way to appropriate these ideas is through the very highest activity of mind as in prayer.

The benefit of taking Holy Communion is the establishing of our acceptance of the Christ whose coming we celebrate within our mind and heart. The bread used in the churches symbolizes substance, which we consider the Lord’s body, a body of spiritual ideas; and the wine used symbolizes His blood, which we consider life, or the circulation of divine ideas in our consciousness that will purify our mind and heart and renew our strength, freeing us from all corruption, sin, and evil, and bringing forth in us the abundant, unlimited life of God. Through the appropriation and assimilation of the substance and life in our own consciousness, we blend our minds with the Father-Mind and there is a harmonizing of every fiber of our body with the Christ body, which is life and light. As our mind and heart are cleansed of untrue thoughts and beliefs, and as we feed on living ideas, our body takes on the life and light of our divinity, and eventually will become living light.

I affirm: “God’s pure life and substance are constantly renewing and rebuilding His holy temple, my body.”

Questions:

1. What is the first step in drinking of the blood and eating of the body of Jesus?

2. What is the benefit of taking Holy Communion?

3. What does bread symbolize?

4. What does wine symbolize?

I observe Holy Communion by keeping the words of Jesus Christ before me, by letting His words of Truth grow in my mind, and by following in His footsteps.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

—————————————————–             

 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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LIFE

16th Day, Saturday. Read John 4:1-26.

Life is a phase of Being, the expression of which manifests as animation, activity, and vigor. The consciousness of eternal life places one in the stream of life that never fails.

The whole race needs a spiritual quickening of the life principle; its origin is in Divine Mind. Life is the gift of God. “Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee.” To think intently about life is to quicken it into action. To talk about energy, force, power, life, will make the life currents flow swiftly throughout the whole being.

To Jesus the God presence was an abiding flame –a flame of life everlasting that He felt in every cell of His body making Him more and more alive, cleansing and purifying Him until He became every whit perfect.

By mastering carnality Jesus opened the way for all men and women to attain eternal life. During our higher realizations of Truth we are often conscious of this abiding flame working in and through us.

I now make alive all the cells in my organism by mentally infusing into them the Christ consciousness. This is the new birth, which is transforming my body and raising it to electrical energy. This was carried to its fulfillment by Jesus in the resurrection of His body. The next step in divine evolution is the spiritualization of the body, or the Ascension.

The quickening life in me is now brought into expression by my holding and repeating this statement of Truth:

“I have the Mind of Christ. My words are spiritually quickened and they are alive forevermore. I am filled with the vitality and vigor and health of Jesus Christ.”

Questions:

1. How does life manifest itself?

2. Where does life originate?

3. What was the God presence to Jesus?

4. How do we make alive all the cells of our organism?

Christ within me is my life. Every part of my body temple is filled with the vigor and strength of Christ.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

—————————————————–             

 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Beginning in the twelfth chapter of Genesis, we read how Abraham was guided by Spirit to leave where he lived to journey to a land which God would show him. He set off, taking with him his wife and his nephew, Lot, and they ended up in the land of Canaan.

Along the way they had prospered greatly, but then the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot quarreled and since they now had so many herds the land couldn’t support them. So Abraham suggested they go their separate ways, and being a generous man he gave the fertile Jordan valley to Lot, and Abraham went up into the hilly country.

It was there that God spoke to Abraham, with these words: “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for ever.”

This is a great message for us all today, for we tend to be limited in our ability to see a greater horizon and all its possibilities. So, “lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are.”

In a sense, this is what we do in inner prayer and meditation. We climb to the heights of spiritual consciousness, get a larger perspective, a cosmic vision, see ourselves and the world around us with a wider sense of what we might call far horizons. We are lifted up out of an illusion of separateness, consciousness has a direct perception of awareness and we experience what the scriptures call the “grace of God.”

Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, once said, “Man can never discern more than a segment of the circle in which he moves, although his powers and capacities are susceptible to infinite expansion. He discovers a faculty in himself and cultivates it until it opens out into a universe of co-related faculties. The farther he goes into mind, the wider its horizons until he is forced to acknowledge that he is not the personal, limited thing he appears, but the focus of an infinite idea.”

In other words, it is not man’s geographical or material horizons that have held him in chains through the centuries, but the limited horizons of his mind. He has looked out to a limited horizon and has beheld a picture of evil and limitation and frustration, old age, certainty of death.

The great message of Truth which Jesus brought changed all this. He said, “Know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” You shall see with a wider viewpoint, and you shall see more broadly. You shall see with a loftier insight from a cosmic perspective of Truth. We need to extend our horizons, add to our faith with the positive knowledge that there is more good for us, that there is more good within us. So how do we push back the boundaries and extend our horizons? Long ago the instruction was given. Isaiah put it this way, “A highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness.”

Jesus was a pioneer in the way of holiness. And in the early days of Christianity, the followers of Jesus were called “followers of the Way.” It is the way of wholeness; it is the way of Truth; it is the way of the cosmic perspective. Jesus went on ahead so we could follow the path, showing us how we too can deal with certain fundamental spiritual laws. He went over the obstacles, meeting the challenges in the midst of life, so that the way could be clear for us, the way of holiness, the way of demonstration, the way of going beyond the horizon to an expanded life. “Abundant living,” he called it.

So, resolve today that you will constantly lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, that you will cultivate a sense of far horizons and expanded vision, that you will see reality in spite of appearances. And the way will open before you.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Trust and Surrender are such important elements in a unified consciousness. We tend to think of trust as something we give in response to something we get but, as spiritual teacher Jeddah Mali reminds us: “In the spiritual world it works exactly the other way around. First we extend trust and then we experience the fruits of safety.”

Many people feel that it is naïve to extend trust without a good reason or a good history to back up such a decision, that with so many violent and disturbing events on our planet, fear is a valid response. But is it? What does fear do for us? It produces an environment where we see different circumstances as a threat. If we are fearful we are putting out a strong message, and thoughts held in mind tend to produce after their kind. We draw our fears toward us and we can say with Job, “That which I feared has come upon me.” Then when we experience the very circumstances we were afraid of we often use it as a justification for being afraid in the first place. Little do we realize that we are creating it over and over again.

How often do we question the validity of our fears? When you come to think about it, you can see that all fear stems from something imagined that may happen to us in the future. We seldom have fears about anything in the past, and we rarely fear what may happen today.

Check up on your fears, find out their origin, and doubtless you will find that every one of them has some reference to the future. And therefore it is based upon an unreality, because the future is unreal; it doesn’t exist. Only the present is really important. So stop thinking so much about the future or living in it, and you will no longer be tortured with thoughts about what tomorrow might bring. If you learn to do this, you will experience a richness of life that you could never have dreamed possible. The anxieties and petty fears that now keep you upset about the future will be gone.

The future as we think about it cannot be lived ahead of time. We are in the midst of life now, so let’s live in the present knowing that those things that do not really exist, such as things in the future, cannot harm us or hurt us. As we learn to live today, we shall discover more resources in our lives than we ever thought existed.

To live a completely happy life, all of life must be lived in the present, not in the future and not in the past, which is, of course, impossible except for the mind. When we try to live in the past, our lives are often lives of regret and remorse. If we live in the future, it is usually a life of fear and worry. Only the present is truly important and if it is lived happily, joyfully, filled with peace and comfort both in mind and body, then the future is bound to be more of the same.

From the activity of the Divine Presence time comes to you one moment at a time, and it is your joyous privilege to live each moment as it comes. Into each moment comes the power that is God, poised in influence and action. Therefore, there is never a moment when you are really lacking in strength, wisdom, harmonizing love, and creative power to do all the things that need to be done by you.

There’s only one thing you cannot do – you cannot stop that central light of God shining in you. You can completely surrender to that understanding, for you have no presence outside the Divine Presence; you live in it, move in it, and have your being in it. And surrender is not giving up what we love; it’s giving up engaging in what’s holding us back, our doubts and fears and limiting thoughts. Profound trust surrenders us to our good.

There is never one moment when you are farther from the all-sufficiency of the Infinite than one prayerful thought. Remember this when you are tempted to worry about the future. I love the thought expressed by one man in his realization of the Divine flow in and through his life: “I am spiritually drenched with divinity.” Can you imagine anything that could bring you more happiness and peace of mind? Once you begin to feel the presence of the eternal in every fiber of your being, you will give up worry and dread in regard in regard to the future. You will give up trying to live in a world that is yet to come.

You have only the present at your command. Let the past remain past, and let the future come to you as it will. Possess life now and live each day as it comes, serenely, joyously, comfortably and with a deep active trust and faith in the presence and power and love of God expressed in and through and as you.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Now that the children are back in school, my wife Kathryn and I find ourselves saying “Bless the children” every time we drive by as the different schools in our area are letting out and we see all the beautiful children meeting parents or getting on buses to go home.

This last two weeks, also, our granddaughter and two friends – all in their early twenties – have been here visiting from England. All three of them attend Chester University and are in a geography and natural hazard management course together and they elected to do their thesis on hurricanes, so what better place to do their research than Florida – right?

For most of the first week they had no car and had to use public transport so it took them a long time to get anywhere for the interviews they had set up, especially when they had to get back and forth between St. Petersburg and Tampa. But then they were able to rent a car and experience driving on our roads; remember in England they drive on the left, so it provided an additional adventure for them to drive on the right.

It has been such a delight to see their excitement and openness to learning as they undertook their research and to experience their youthful spirit and exuberance. And it got me to thinking about youthfulness and how it can be expressed and maintained at any age because it is truly a state of mind or consciousness. Life is, but we do with life what we want according to our state of mind. As Herbert Spencer said, “It is the mind that maketh good or ill, that maketh rich or poor . . .” and perhaps we could add “It is the mind that maketh young or old.”

We can develop an awareness of youthfulness by looking at the young and trying to understand what it is that makes a youthful spirit. What is it about the young person that makes him or her so appealing? Usually they are not at all aware of it themselves, so there is sometimes a tendency for young people to misuse this process. As George Bernard Shaw said, “What a pity that we waste youth on the very young before they are old enough to know what to do with it.”

Now Jesus tells us to become as little children, but this doesn’t mean that we should become childish, nor does it mean that we should ape young people. The first thing is to create a consciousness. Become interested and interesting in life and all the things related to life. Then allow this consciousness to guide you in the way in which you live.

One of the endearing things about young people is that they can pick up experiences and relationships and lay them aside just as easily. This ability to move from one experience to another is very much a part of youthfulness. A young person doesn’t yearn over loss; he or she tends to let go easily without holding on and accumulating additional burdens.

A parent cannot be youthful in consciousness unless he or she develops the ability to let go, which partly means to let go of his or her children and make oneself progressively unnecessary as a parent. This, of course, is very difficult for some persons. But the one who learns to let go is the parent who becomes youthful.

There is also a great need to keep an open mind. An open mind, an awareness of the versatility of life, the willingness to look at many levels of perception, consciousness and many different shades of meaning, political viewpoints, interests and so forth – these give us an eagerness for discovery.

You can work to develop a youthful spirit. Say to yourself, “Let not one day pass when I have not learned some new thing.” Youthfulness is being interested in life. Nothing is uninteresting to the young mind, and in this life there is nothing uninteresting. Youthfulness is curiosity; there is adventure in the simplest of things. When Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, was in his nineties he awoke one morning and said, “I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm, and I spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that should be done by me.” He was at the age of ninety-four! That’s youthfulness.

Youthfulness is the ability to dream the impossible dream, to have the courage to launch out into new experiences, even into the unknown. “Dare to dream, fling wide the gates to your heart,” says the poet. Dream of greater things, dream of new tomorrows and let your mind expand in considering all the possibilities that could happen in your life. Stop looking back in regret but look forward in faith and optimism, holding life with a light touch. Live the youthful spirit; be the person that, in heart at the root of you, you always are.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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The following story appeared in Alan Cohen’s newsletter recently, with his thought-provoking suggestion that we look within ourselves to discover the treasure waiting to be brought forth in our own life experience. Enjoy!

Earlier this month the nation of India discovered a nearly unbelievable treasure locked in the basement of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum. The cache of gold statues, diamonds, and jewels was accumulated through donations to the temple by wealthy families over a period of 500 years.  Locked in six tightly secured rooms, no one has viewed the booty for over 150 years.         

     The value of the find is currently estimated at a minimum of $22 billion, perhaps much more.  Indian leaders are now deciding what to do with the treasure, the sum of which exceeds India’s annual budget for education for the entire nation of nearly 1.2 billion people.

     Since what you see outside you, including public news, represents what is happening inside you, the news is good for all of us.  You have an extraordinary treasure hidden in your basement. You own a royal fortune of talent, insight, creativity, vision, love, and connection to universal wisdom. Like the treasure at Padmanabhaswamy, your cache has largely been locked away.  Yet the day comes when the riches are liberated and put to good use.  No one benefits from gold sitting in a dark chamber, especially when circulating it can improve the world. How many people in India can be fed for $22 billion? How many homes could be built for the many impoverished there? How many children could be educated so they can create better lives for themselves and their families?

     I think it symbolic and appropriate that the greatest hidden treasure of all time has been unearthed in one of the most overtly poor nations on the planet.  No matter the appearance of lack or bleakness the outer world shows us, there exists an invisible gift to offset it. The issues of the world seem insurmountable: the ecological crisis, financial deficit, war, hunger, and social and moral decay. Yet there are answers and healing for all of these pressing issues if we just look below the surface, and go within.

     The deity of the Trivandrum Temple, Padmanabhaswamy, represents the Hindu Lord Vishnu asleep. Perhaps Lord Vishnu is waking up as an inspiration for all of us to join him.

Read more of the story

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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“There is sunshine in my soul today,
It is glorious and bright . . .

“O there’s sunshine, blessed sunshine,
As the peaceful, happy moments roll;
For I behold the Christ in every face
And there’s sunshine in my soul.”

So go the words of a long-time Unity joy song.

Yes, there is sunshine in your soul today, and all you have to do is tap into it and express it in your life. Let the sunshine radiate out from your smile and bless all whom you meet.

Jesus said, “You will know the Truth and the Truth will make you free.” (John 8:32) He is speaking of that which is eternally true; he is talking about a revelation of the depths within, giving rise to a perception that evokes a spirit of joy. Again, he said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11)

One of the great discoveries of human unfoldment is that happiness is not an effect . . . but a cause, and that a person is happy, not because of what did or did not happen, but because he or she is a happy person. Unity minister Eric Butterworth was fond of saying, “Within every person is the unborn possibility of limitless joy . . . and ours is the privilege of giving birth to it.” And it was Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, who said, “Life for every person should be a journey in jubilance.”

Certainly everyone wants to be happy, for it is the “summum bonum of existence.” But we have been deluded into thinking that it is to be found in things, experiences, and relationships. Indeed, that viewpoint is reflected in another sunshine song which goes something like this:

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine;
You make me happy when skies are gray.
You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you;
Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

A woman who was sick, burdened with financial crises, and troubled with discouragement, ran across these words in a Truth publication: “Until you are happy you will be neither healthy nor free.” “How can I be happy,” she thought, “when I have so much pain and trouble?” The words would not let her be. So she decided to test the idea.

Looking honestly at herself, she found that there were glaring defects in her disposition that needed correction. With effort, she began to live more calmly, to see life more clearly. She found other Truth ideas that suggested that God had implanted the spark of joy within each person, and that she had only to express joy to experience it.

The woman then discovered she could start the spirit of joy by simply “acting as if she were happy.” Now, this “act as if” practice can become a lure into sham and artificiality. It is valid only if it deals with the releasement of an inner power that is constant. You may act as if you are a child, or an expression, of God, for that is what you are. And you may act as if you are happy, for there is a bubbling fire of joy at the heart of you awaiting your commitment to express it.

The woman discovered an amazing thing. As she began to act as if she were happy, she began to feel happy, and the happier she felt, the stronger and healthier she felt . . . and thus the greater became her reasons for happiness. Before long her disposition improved, her affairs harmonized, and she was back in the fullness of life. And it all started the moment she realized that “until you are happy you will be neither healthy nor free.”

There is an important principle involved in this. We live in a world of rhythm and harmony which is limitless in potential, and each of us is limitless in the capacity to demonstrate a personal experience of that limitlessness. But we must become synchronized, and an important key is the bubbling forth of a jubilant spirit.

Begin every day with the insistent affirmation, “This is the day which the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” When you start your day in a happy spirit, with joy in your heart and a smile on your face, people respond. You leave a “mile of smiles” as you walk along, and all your business and social contacts are influenced by this contagion. Your day will be a day you can be happy about, because it is a day that you are happy in.

Here are some words from another Unity joy song to adopt as your own:

I let my light shine and the obstacles vanish,
I let my light shine and the light casts out fear,
I let my light shine and the radiance heals me,
I let my light shine and my way is made clear.
Son light is the Truth of my nature,
Son light is God shining through me,
I let my light shine, and my world is illumined,
I let my light shine and the light sets me free!

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

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